Let’s face it most gingerbread is for looking not eating. If sandwiched next to a chocolate chip cookie the poor gingerbread boys will die of loneliness. How to make Gingerbread you want to eat is a whole different recipe. Building houses and vintage campers with the gingery dough gets my creative juices flowing! But eating…
family bonding
Fun Ways to Get Rid of Halloween Candy (without just eating it all)
Need fun, effective ways to get rid of Halloween Candy this fall. Try these tear free solutions with your little goblins. It was a crazy 4-day candy free-for-all for the Joyous Family. Candy piled on candy in our home. All 4 of us were becoming tired and cranky. Friday: An afternoon stroll down main street…
How to Make Easy Ooozzing Pumpkins for Halloween
Got your pumpkin all carved but it needs a little something. Humm, how about an oozing pumpkin with neon green, or pink or even purple slim bubbling out of its mouth. Green goo sliding out of you pumpkin’s mouth for Halloween trick-or-treaters is so easy! The simplest way uses house hold ingredients that are safe…
Want More Free Time With Your Family?
I want more free time with my family how about you? When I add up the school/work day and see how many hours I truly spend face to face with my kids I feel sad. Before school, I spend about an hour with them and after school about 4 hours which includes dinner, homework, preparing…
Make Road Trips with Kids More Fun with Free Podcasts ( you might just learn something too!)
Road trips with kids offer family learning and fun on the run. Add to this by including a fun discussion sparking kid’s podcast. Just yesterday, my youngest son and I learned (via podcast) that camels, those desert beasts of burden, are not uniquely fit for sand storms and harsh winds–no, that actually come from a…
Organize Your Holiday Schedule In 15 Minutes
Holiday schedule organization in as little as 15 minutes keeps a busy home from turning into chaos. You can use a simple wall calendar and 15 minutes at a family dinner to create a plan for attending holiday parties and performances. (This post does contain affiliate links to help you find items and support the…
How We Created a No Stress Christmas Day and You Can Too!
We saved our family Christmas Day by doing nothing. Six or seven Christmases ago we started doing “nothin’ ” for Christmas Day. It came as a revelation to my husband and I when the boys were really little. (Affiliate links provided so you can find products and we can support the blog-thank you so…
Stop Holiday Debt Before Putting Up A Christmas Tree
Debt! Debt! I am done with debt! No more January’s where I am $1000 short after the holidays. A survey by Magnifymoney.com did a national sample of 403 Americans and found the following. On average Americans are $986 in debt after the holidays. Gifts, holiday food, hosting parties and travel rack up the credit card…
Enjoy Stress Free Holidays This Year
Stress Free holidays? Only if I ran away to a desert island and lived alone on coconut milk and papaya in a drift wood shack and a grass skirt. Wait, then I would just feel sad that I was not with my family. Such a pickle, the stress of creating a holiday memory or much…
What Little Treasures From Your Children are You Keeping?
Children offer us little treasures almost daily, a picture, a kind word and sometimes a holy experience. Mary, the mother of Jesus comes to mind when these holy moments happen to me. Luke says that after the angel sang and shepherds admired the baby Jesus, that Mary, instead of being frustrated at all the intrusions…